I don't know the book, Norm but I like the title! I don't know the answer to the question either. When I was a baby Bonanza was very popular so the nurses would call me "Little Joe". He was the young one, right? They repeated that series for years in NZ so I used to get comments about it but this is the first time in decades anyone has mentioned it! The last time I can think of anyone referring to the TV Cartwrights was my first time in Spain I went to change a travellers cheque and handed over my passport and the woman at the counter said "ah Bonanza!" Never even considered that the book's Western references would link to Bonanza. maybe I should dress up like a cowboy for some promo!

"Hard Travellin" is a fabulous book, you've a treat in store when you read it.

It's an exploration of America's itinerant workers, the internal migrants, the bindlestiffs, the bums and the hobos. It's a combination of history and a personal travel log, as he goes around meeting with and telling their personal stories. I first read it in the mid-60s and it quoted lines from, and mentioned singers I'd never then heard of, or heard much of: Bumble Bee Slim, Robert Johnson, etc. The bit I just read mentions a young hillbilly kid, 19 years old, in a mock leather jacket decorated with tin studs, playing on his harmonica a version of a Hank Ballard & The Midnighters song I still don't know. It's not a book about music, but it recognises it as a part of people's lives.

Kenneth Allsop was a very interesting guy. He was a regular feature on BBC tv as an external reporter (he started the research to "Hard Travellin" when he had ten days to spare between interviews he was doing in the USA). He was on the "Tonight" programme a lot. I mostly remember him for introducing blues players they sometimes had in the studio to do a number. Can you imagine? Big Joe Williams on early evening telly - introduced by Kenneth Allsop, who seemed to know a lot about their lives. One time, he introduced a piano-singer, apparently best known for his song "West Texas Woman" (I can't remember who that was - I'm sure Alan'll fill in the details, please). Allsop introduced this singer with genuine respect and, I felt, awe.

Sadly, Allsop died of a barbiturate poisoning around 1969. Suicide, or an overdose of pain killers (he walked with a limp - I have no idea why).

Wow this is the last place I expected one of my all-time heroes to be mentioned!

Allsop's 'In The Country' was partly responsible for re-igniting my passion for wildlife when I were a young-un. His exquisite descriptions of what were then two common birds, the Starling and the Spotted Flycatcher, were so full of wonder and precise observation that I was hooked right from the start.

I met his widow Betty - a lovely woman - on a trip to Steep Holm, the island in the Bristol Channel which became a nature reserve founded and administered by the Kenneth Allsop Memorial Trust back in the mid 70s. A great and humane man.

Kenneth Allsop wore the best suits and shirts, and had the best haircut on TV at the time. One thing I remember vividly from Hard Travellin' is his account of the origins of The Big Rock Candy Mountain, which came as something of a revelation after years of hearing the Burl Ives version on Children's Favourites. He also wrote a book about Prohibiton, The Bootleggers, which I recall as finding rather dry and academic, rather as if it was based on a Ph.D thesis, but I'd like to read both books again.

In addition to Hard Travellin' I have his three other books The Bootleggers, The Angry Decade and Adventure Lit Their Star. Will investigate what biographical data is given on their dust jackets in due course.

Des wrote:Allsop's 'In The Country' was partly responsible for re-igniting my passion for wildlife when I were a young-un. His exquisite descriptions of what were then two common birds, the Starling and the Spotted Flycatcher, were so full of wonder and precise observation that I was hooked right from the start.

I'd forgotten about In The Country because for some reason it's not on the same shelf as the other KA books. Youâ€™ll love Adventure Lit Their Star, it was published in 1947 and a fictionalised account of bird migration. I think it won a literary prize.

Des wrote:Allsop's 'In The Country' was partly responsible for re-igniting my passion for wildlife when I were a young-un. His exquisite descriptions of what were then two common birds, the Starling and the Spotted Flycatcher, were so full of wonder and precise observation that I was hooked right from the start.

I'd forgotten about In The Country because for some reason it's not on the same shelf as the other KA books. Youâ€™ll love Adventure Lit Their Star, it was published in 1947 and a fictionalised account of bird migration. I think it won a literary prize.

Perhaps Charlie can create a new KA topic.

Yep I have been trying to get hold of 'Adventure' for 30 odd years - never been successful. One of the few occasions in which Little Ringed Plovers grab the limelight!

NormanD wrote:Kenneth Allsop was a very interesting guy. He was a regular feature on BBC tv as an external reporter (he started the research to "Hard Travellin" when he had ten days to spare between interviews he was doing in the USA). He was on the "Tonight" programme a lot. I mostly remember him for introducing blues players they sometimes had in the studio to do a number. Can you imagine? Big Joe Williams on early evening telly - introduced by Kenneth Allsop, who seemed to know a lot about their lives. One time, he introduced a piano-singer, apparently best known for his song "West Texas Woman" (I can't remember who that was - I'm sure Alan'll fill in the details, please). Allsop introduced this singer with genuine respect and, I felt, awe.

It was probably Whistlin' Alex Moore when he was in this country with the 1969 AFBF. I'm fairly sure the Big Joe appearance was the previous year. One of the blues mags noted the first Tonight happening with consternation, making some joke along the lines of "what next Fyfe Robertson meets Sleepy John Estes and neither party being able to penetrate each other's accents".

Alan Balfour wrote:It was probably Whistlin' Alex Moore when he was in this country with the 1969 AFBF. I'm fairly sure the Big Joe appearance was the previous year. One of the blues mags noted the first Tonight happening with consternation, making some joke along the lines of "what next Fyfe Robertson meets Sleepy John Estes and neither party being able to penetrate each other's accents".

It must have been Alex Moore, but it would have been earlier than 1969, as "Tonight" ended its run in 1965, and it was around the early-60s that I'd sit glued to the set most evenings. Unless, of course, it was another BBC prog from that time. Definitely Allsop, however - I remember the limp!

Des wrote:I now have a copy of 'Adventure' but to be honest it looks a bit unreadable even for a hard-boiled old birder like me.

It's been decades since I read it but seem to recall that although the subject matter was alien to me I persevered and became quite engrossed in the travails of this species over the centuries. A relatively short book compared to his others so maybe I'll give it another read. I recall it also contained a handful of very good line drawings.